CSU: fundraising nears record for Fort Collins campus

Nov. 9, 2012

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Colorado State University appears on track for a record-setting year of raising donations for the university’s Fort Collins campus, with more than 12,000 people giving in the past four months.

“This is a world-class place, and people are seeing that. And they’re supporting us,” said Brett Anderson, the vice president for advancement at CSU. “We are seeing great momentum.”

The $32.9 million CSU has raised in the first four months comes even before the launch of a planned campaign to build an on-campus football stadium. Anderson said that campaign, which aims to raise $125 million in two years, will launch around the end of this year.

But he said the months of discussion about the stadium project have raised CSU’s profile and gotten prospective donors thinking about the university.

“What I’ve really been very happy to see is that this has energized the community. It opened their eyes; they’ve gotten engaged,” Anderson said. “It’s such a great university, and that’s why we’re having this success.”

CSU permits donors to specify where their money will be spent, and Anderson said that’s helped reassure some donors who oppose the stadium but still want to support the university. He said a small number of donors contacted by the university have decided to withhold contributions in protest of the stadium plan.

CSU earlier this year concluded a fundraising campaign that brought in more than $540 million. Anderson said 95 percent of that money came from fewer than 1,000 people, but that about 95,000 people donated.

He said the stadium fundraising campaign will likely work the same way, with a relatively small number of people donating the vast majority of the money, but with many donors contributing smaller amounts.

“We understand that not everybody supports the stadium, and that’s OK,” Anderson said. “We’ve seen, by far and away ... that people still love us academically. And that’s what we need. Because that’s what makes us better.”

CSU last year raised about $112 million from about 31,700 donors, Anderson said.